2 days From Melbourne to Great Ocean Road
 

I am planning to have 2 full days trip along Great Ocean road. I am expecting to visit and stay near 12 apostles on 1st day, and then stay another night at the same place or somewhere on the way back to Melbourne. Please advise me the following:<BR><BR>1. If am expecting to drive not more than 4 hours of drive, should I stay 2 nights at the same place, or 1 night near 12 apostles, and then another night somewhere?<BR><BR>2. Which places must I stay overnight: Apollo Bay, Warrnambool, Port Campbell or Port Fairy.<BR><BR>3. Which motels/hotels with seaview you recommend(don't mind the price)?<BR><BR>4. How long it drives from Melbourne to 12 apostles, and return?<BR><BR>5. Besides 12 apostles, what I must see and pay visit?<BR><BR>thx<BR>Daisy

I assume you have three days and two nights for this trip, so here are my suggestions.<BR>Spend your first day wandering along the Great Ocean Road and head for Port Fairy for your first night. You should be there by about 5pm allowing time to stop and look along the way. Port Fairy is an old fishing port and is a delightful place to stay, lots of B&amp;Bs, motels and eating places. There are a few B&amp;Bs overlooking the river. <BR>Next morning, drive back towards to Melbourne for about 20 km and go into Tower Hill National Park. Then backtrack to Port Fairy and head north to Mount Eccles, another extinct volcano where you should see koalas. From here, drive to Dunkeld and head north through the Grampian ranges to Halls Gap. This is another good place to stay overnight with good choices for accommodation and eating. Lots of good walks - I'd recommend driving to Mackenzie Falls, Reads Lookout and Boroke Lookout - you can do short walks from each of these and also get great views. Apart from the scenery, you should also see lots of kangeroos and birds, and possibly koalas and emus.<BR>We did this trip last month and while the driving is longer than four hours each day, we found we had plenty of time to look around without feeling tired. The first day we had lunch in Apollo Bay. Leaving Port Fairy, we were in Hamilton for lunch and reached Halls Gap about 2pm. From Halls Gap to Melbourne is about 260 km, so you could stop in Ballarat for a quick look around on your way back.<BR>Hope this helps.

we did this trip in October and took 2 full days to drive from Melbourne to Warnambool, because we were looking at the scenery all the way.We also stopped and did a few small walks to waterfalls just at the side of the GOR. We also visited the Otway lighthouse (2nd oldest lighthouse in Australia) and you can often see koalas in the trees along the road to it. We stayed in a great B&amp;B that had a beautiful garden and overlooked the ocean and a small rocky island covered with seals sunbaking! A great breakfast too - the Spindrift B&amp;B a little way out of Apollo Bay and had a great dinner at the restaurant in Apollo Bay the owners recommended. It cost A$140 for 2 bedrooms (we had our adult son with us) and breakfast. I think they have a website, so try google for it. Look out for a house on the tallest concrete pylon I've ever seen - maybe 50 metres in the air! It seemed that high! I couldn't even stand near the windows if it were mine!The next day we continued on to Warnambool visiting the 12 apostles, and stayed at another fantastic B&amp;B full of antique furniture and silverware - huge spa bath and sitting room as well as bedroom - the Merton Manor. Again a great breakfast! Cost A$260 for the 3 of us in 2 &quot;rooms&quot; including a decanter of complimentary port. I think a lot of honeymooners use it but it was great! The next day we drove back to Melbourne along the highway and had lunch in Ballarat and visited the &quot;Eureka Stockade&quot;. <BR>

Dear all:

So how long is it going to take fro driving from Melbourne to Apollo Bay, then to warrnambool, then back to Melbourne?

Apollo Bay is 187 km from Melbourne. The first stretch (70 km to Geelong) is all freeway and should take about 45 minutes. From there on the road is two lane and winding.
You can take an alternative route from Warrnambool to Melbourne - not as scenic but quicker, through Colac. Warrnambool is 263 km from Melbourne and Port Fairy is 291 km. The route along the Great Ocean Road is longer but worth it.

It takes 5 hours to drive the GOR from Melb to Warnambool. The return trip along the inland highway takes 3 hours.

I would drive from Melb to Apollo Bay and stay at Spindrift B&amp;B for the night - MUCH nicer than a hotel/motel look at this website: http://home.vicnet.net.au/~spindrft/ - the ensuite rooms were wonderful and the breakfast huge and healthy! Stop for lunch along the way at one of the towns like Lorne and look around, go to the Surfing Museum at Torquay (near Geelong) which is pretty interesting, and do lots of walks. Drive to 12 apostles the next day, the car park is on the inland side of the highway, don't miss Loch Ard gorge along the way, and stop in Port Campbell for a snack, or any of the little interesting towns/villages along the way, then stay the night in Warnambool or Port Fairy, returning to Melb via the inland highway, stopping in Ballarat for lunch and a bit of history (Eureka Stockade) - it's an old gold mining town. The majority of the GOR is 60klms/hr because it is so curvy. We were going to do the Halls Gap, Grampian thing too, but found this more relaxing and interesting.